1941 Book(s) Related to I Love You Like an Alcoholic

For three years of marriage, Nicholas Harrison only saw me twice a month—each time, just to fulfill his marital duties.
He was indifferent, knew nothing about me, and when our three-year agreement was up, he couldn’t wait to chase after his true love.
I turned away with a smile. “Nicholas, let’s get a divorce. I’ll set you free.”
From that moment on, I stopped expecting anything from him and threw myself into my career.
Soon, I was shining brighter than ever, standing at the top of my field—with no place left for him by my side.
But as my talent caught the world’s eye, Nicholas found himself drawn to me, again and again, unable to resist.
Only when I walked away for good did he finally learn the truth about our past.
He was full of regret, but I had already become a national treasure—someone far beyond his reach.
I told him, “I’m done being your billionaire wife……”

When I gave birth to my child Leo, my Alpha husband Gideon didn’t even show up. Instead, his ex girlfriend Daphne walked in and ripped my child from me. It turns out that he misunderstood and hated me ever since we mated and just need my genes to get the strongest Alpha heir from the prophecy. Daphne took the chance to put my wolf into dormancy and kicked me out to the rogue forest… Luckily, I was saved by the Alpha Prince who live in seclusion, and found out I have another child that was about to be born….
Seven years later, I returned to the pack to see my son, hiding who I really am and the fact I have my daughter Nova.
But why did everything turned out to be different from what I believed?

Marilyn is a self made boss and a Baddie. She does not soften for anyone but she made an exception for her fiancé.
Until she found out her fiancé Tom was cheating on her. To make matter worse, he didn't feel remorse. He broke off the engagement and left her standing there like a fool.
She ends up at a hotel bar, where an arrogant stranger approaches her. He’s persistent, irritatingly sure of himself, and exactly the kind of man she doesn’t deal with. She dismisses him and leaves, refusing to give any man her time anymore.
The next day, she goes to her ex’s office with the intention of ruining his peace. Instead, she finds the man from the bar. His name is Dante. He is her ex’s boss.
Dante proposes an offer and she accepts when she realizes it would get her the revenge she wants on her ex and even more.
The arrangement is clear: No feelings attached.
But the longer they play the part, the more the line blur.

This is a story about control, ego, attraction, and what happens when two people who don’t surrender to anyone start wanting each other anyway.

In my past life, I spent everything loving Ronald Wright, only to watch him chase after his first love and marry her in the end. I died alone and sick in a hospital, forgotten.

After being reborn, I gave up. On our wedding anniversary, I asked for a divorce. I walked away from being a full-time housewife and became the youngest rising star in the design world.

But something changed. The husband who once ignored me suddenly cared. He came home every day, afraid I might cheat on him.
I sneered, “One day, you’ll be the one begging for a divorce.” He laughed, “Keep dreaming.”

I waited for him to realize, just like in the past, that he still loved the other woman and would force me to leave, giving me millions in return.

But this time, he pulled me into his arms and said, “What’s money after a divorce? I’m worth billions. It’s all yours. But you—you’re mine.”

Riley
New name, new look, new life. I've been careful to keep my past at bay. The last thing I needed was the stranger with those calm discerning eyes to cross my path. I must avoid him at all costs, even if he haunts my dreams and sends waves of heat across my skin. My focus is survival, not lust. Not even if he ignited a longing I'd never thought possible.

Draven
A mission. Find the missing girls and bring the perpetrator to justice. The retributive kind. I've grown used to the shadows but I am drawn to her light. Moth to a flame, the only way to quell my curiosity is to satiate it. But not too much. Not completely.

TEASER:
You want me, don’t you?” A simple question that warranted a simple answer.
“Should I have had you checked for a head injury?” he scoffed, a swift blow that knocked the wind out of my lungs and I realised I had been holding my breath. My lips parted, and my chest heaved, working overtime to replenish my body’s oxygen from those few moments of starvation.
Steeling my spine, I stepped forward, invading his space, oblivious to the eyes that were thrown our way. Or was I imagining that? Draven didn’t budge, a perfectly shaped brow elevated as he considered my movement with little interest. There wasn’t a single flicker of emotion to cross his features, not even that Godforsaken misleading smile made an appearance.
“Then you’ve no reason to threaten any man I may find interesting.” I breathed the words slowly, erotically.

“I used to have ice surrounding my heart, but it melted the moment I fucked you,” Hardin said and she scoffed.

“It was just a harmless sex, grow up kid, and let me go!”She yelled.

Freda was cheated on by her boyfriend because, he claimed she was bad at sex so he had to cheat.

Freda was angry so she went to the clubhouse with the intention of having sex with another man just to see if she was really bad at it. She didn’t know she ended up having sex with a mafia lord.

Later on, she was kidnapped by him who was lust after her after having sex with her.

He threatened to kill her best friend if she refused to be with him, having no choice, Freda agreed with an intention of killing him.

Slowly, she didn’t know how this hatred of hers turned into love, something she wasn’t willing to let go even if he was indifferent towards her.

“You’re just one of his sex toys Freda, I was once like you. When he’s done with you, he’d trash you,” Despite knowing all of this, would she let go or hold on it him?

Find out!

“I’ll die in ten days without my second chance mate…just claim me, Asher… before it’s too late.” I pleaded.

“If I do, I’ll never love you again. That's worse than you dying…”

Banished. Cursed. Unclaimed.

Phina thought being chosen as a mate by a powerful Alpha would save her. Instead, she was used, betrayed, and thrown to the wolves—literally. Now cursed to die unless she's claimed within ten days, she's dragged before the one wolf feared by all: Asher, the ruthless Rogue Alpha King.

When their eyes meet, sparks fly. One word seals their fate: “Mate.”

But Asher is cursed too—one night with any woman, and he loses all ability to love her. He fights the pull. She begs for survival. Every moment burns with forbidden heat…
Until desire wins.

Will claiming her break the curse—or destroy them both?

My daughter has passed away, and my ex-husband abandoned us.

In my darkest hour, my first love, Lysander, reappeared; he covered the medical expenses, married me, and provided me with a home.

For five years, I believed I was the luckiest woman in the world.

Until that fateful day, four months into my pregnancy, when I overheard his conversation with a friend—

“To save Celeste, I thought... who knew it would lead to the death of Seraphina’s daughter?”

“As for Seraphina, she is a good wife, but alas... I do not love her.”

It turned out that my daughter’s death was no accident.

It was revealed that these five years of marriage were merely his quest for atonement.

The one he had always truly loved was Celeste—my ex-husband’s current wife.

As I lay on the operating table, I made a decision—

Since he had taken my daughter’s kidney, I would seize everything from him.

Including what he believed he would never lose: me.

"NEXT DOOR is full of completely unexpected twists—you will read it on the edge of your chair. It is Blake Pierce at his best! Another masterpiece of suspense and mystery. I highly recommend it to the permanent library of all readers that appreciate an excellent thriller, full of psychological suspense and with a completely unexpected ending. This is the first in what promises to be another excellent series. I can hardly wait to read the sequel."--Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto MattosA NEIGHBOR’S LIE (A Chloe Fine Mystery) is book #2 in a new psychological suspense series by bestselling author Blake Pierce, whose #1 bestseller Once Gone (Book #1) (a free download) has over 1,000 five-star reviews. FBI Violent Crimes Division Special Agent Chloe Fine, 27, still reeling from the secrets of her past, finds herself thrown into her first case: the murder of a nanny in a seemingly perfect suburban town.Immersed in a world of secrets, of unfaithful couples, of pretense and artifice, Chloe soon realizes that anyone—and everyone—may be guilty. Yet at the same time, with her own father still in jail, she must battle her own demons and unravel her own secrets, which threaten to bring her down before her own career even begins.An emotionally wrought psychological suspense with layered characters, small-town ambiance and heart-pounding suspense, A NEIGHBOR’S LIE is book #2 in a riveting new series that will leave you turning pages late into the night. Book #3 in the CHLOE FINE series will be available soon.

"I will marry you. Wait for me!"
Mabel woke up. She had that dream again. In her dream, a man said he would marry her. Just a dream.
Five years ago, she was set up by her stepsister and became pregnant out of wedlock. She lost everything, including her baby.
Five years later, she was forced to marry her stepsister's fiance, Jayden, who was sick and going to pass away.
Having no choice, Mabel decided to marry Jayden, not expecting that Jayden was the man...

After one year of marriage, her husband discovered Ella's two children from outside.
Ella was unable to defend herself and chose divorce.
After leaving with nothing, her ex-husband Joshua came to Ella, saying the children were his.
To bring the two children back to the Thomas family, Joshua appeared in front of Ella every day, enthusiastically trying to win over the children.
"Ella, remarry me, and from now on I'll do whatever you say."
Ella pulled the children closer, "Sorry, ex-husband, I have a new husband now."
At that moment, Joshua felt like the sky was falling.
How could his wife and children be with another man.

Five years ago, James publicly called off their engagement and personally sent Nora to prison.
On the day of her release, James dragged her to the hospital: "Evelyn was in a car accident and needs a kidney transplant. Give her your kidney."
She had congenital heart disease - donating a kidney would be a death sentence. When she refused, James used every means to force her.
On the day she entered the operating room, her heart stopped and resuscitation failed. It was said that James, who had desperately wanted her dead, cried at her grave for three days and nights.
Later, James saw Nora again at the Smith family home.
She was already married to his older brother Michael, holding a five-year-old child, having become Michael's beloved and pampered little wife.
James: "Nora, I know I was wrong."
Michael: "Get lost. This is your sister-in-law."

I'm Kennedy, the pack's recognized Luna, and Tyler's fated mate—or so I foolishly believed.
That day, the pregnancy test burned in my palm as I traced the tiny life growing inside me, my heart swelling with secret joy.
But that joy turned to ash outside the club on that rainy night.
Brenda's back—the woman who saved his life, the one he chose without hesitation over me.
He grew colder by the day, letting her friends call me a FAKE LUNA to my face, even saying he wanted to reject our mate bond.
I clung to my pregnancy like it was my last shred of dignity, terrified that if I spoke up, all I'd hear was his icy command--
"Abort it."
He left me soaking in the rain, ignored me when I was burning with fever, and let me be humiliated, let me be pressured.
But he forgot—
I'm Kennedy, not some fragile vine that bends to his will.
He'll pay the most brutal price for that stupid mistake!

Jenna, an exemplary daughter, lives alone with her father who raised her with a lot of love, discipline and responsibility. Mark Black, a very upright man who was widowed very young, but did not make another commitment to his daughter, to live happily. But life is like that, both contacted a blind date company, where they did not speak, wore masks that did not let recognize anything of each other's identity, without knowing it, they do something that would cause pain, regret, tears. Even so, there is an unrevealed truth that in the end will cause their lives to change in their totality.

What will that revelation be? What truth will that be? Find out when you read this controversial novel.

Where they discover that sex takes place with who can be something for you, but neither knows anything about the other, since everything is done in silence and with masks, but there are also sayings such as.

"NOTHING IS WHAT IT SEEMS".

Love will overcome very hard obstacles and its protagonists must have strength to cross them, because sometimes friendship and fidelity is something temporary, sometimes who you should take care of is the person you appreciate the most, not always friends are what they seem and say they love you.

Because sometimes friendship is camouflaged in your worst enemy.

when Olivia's fiancé walked out of their wedding for another woman
she ran into the pouring rain in her wedding dress💔...
Her bf's Alpha brother took her home.
"I make the rule, dear.Just say yes. l would bury him six feet beneath the ground. In Pieces."

I followed him when I was eighteen, always thinking I was different from others. Later, he brought back a girl, shy and timid, so much like how I used to be. Watching him shower the girl with all his care, it was then that I realized, I was never a special presence, that girl was. In the tenth year of following him, I decisively chose to leave.
Continuously updating, with 5 chapters added daily.

Victoria is the abandoned daughter of the Gonzalez family. Everyone dislikes her, but they have no idea that she is the only top perfume mixer and possesses great power in society. Business and political magnates all follow her lead.
Alexander Garcia is a business tycoon, cold and heartless. He has encountered powerful rivals, but he has no idea that young girl Victoria is behind this.
Alexander said, “Victoria, I have personally stripped off all your disguises. Now, it’s time to win your heart.”

Our plane went down on a deserted island. The boat fit two. My fiancé Callum was the only one who could drive it.
In my last life, he chose me — and left his childhood sweetheart Vesper behind. She didn't survive. He spent five years making sure I knew it was my fault. Every day I breathed was a day she couldn't. When I held a knife to my throat to get a divorce, he drove us both into the sea.
Now I'm back. Same island, same wreckage, same choice.
This life, I said: "Take Vesper."
The relief on his face — the way his whole body unclenched — told me everything five years of marriage never did.
He promised he'd come back for me. He didn't look back once.
I knew I had to save myself. But the bear — the same one that ate Vesper in my last life — reached the crash site before I could move.

The day I found out I was dying, Alpha Griffon Knight broke up with me. Our relationship was a contract, but when his true love came back, he didn’t need me anymore. He canceled our contract and told me to get lost. I thought that after five years, his frozen heart would thaw for me. How wrong I was. So I packed my things and left. Without telling him… I only had three months left to live.

Griffon Knight’s private jet landed at the airport at 7:00 p.m., just as the sun was starting to set, vivid orange and red giving way to the bright light of the moon. Within a half hour of his arrival, he requested that I be brought to his downtown penthouse.

For three years, I was nothing but an invisible wife. While my billionaire husband, James, showered his mistress with millions, I watched my family get driven to ruin.

Heartbroken, I left the signed divorce papers and fled. But the ultimate nightmare came in a foreign hospital: doctors told me my newborn daughter had died at birth. My world went dark.

Six years later, I returned. Not as a pathetic housewife, but as a world-renowned medical genius, flanked by my two brilliant twin sons.

Then, the sickening truth unraveled. My daughter wasn't dead. She was stolen, locked in the Martin mansion, and abused into autism by James's mistress. Now, the mistress wants me dead, while James is suddenly desperate to trap me by his side, demanding a second chance.

This time, I won't run. The stolen years, the torture of my daughter, and the ruin of my family—I’m going to make you pay it all back, with interest.

For five years, Celia was nothing more than Alpha king’s secret lover, wearing her disliked dress and perfume, just because he like it on her.
—until She overheard the truth: “She’s just a replacement. A gold digger.”
"I chose her, just becuase she seems like you. She's your Substitute. Never deserved be a luna."
Shattered, she walks away, vowing never to look back.
But then—her instincts sharpen, her senses heighten, and Soren’s scent clings to her skin.
...Mate.
Impossible. A wolfless girl like her could never be the Alpha King’s fated mate… right?
*
On the first day she left, he wasn’t worried. “She’ll come back.”
“Don’t bother with it. She was just a substitute lover. A worthless gold digger.”
But after a week… a month… three months… his panic set in.
“Lock down the entire pack—find her at all costs…
—Find my Luna!”

In a city where magic and darkness intertwine with ancient secrets and futuristic technology, two siblings marked by a hidden past seek redemption. Izabella, a young witch with a deep connection to the moon, and Brandon, a banished wizard with uncontrollable power, become entangled in a conspiracy that threatens to destroy their world. The arrival of an enigmatic vampire, Lord Lucien, unleashes a forbidden passion between him and Izabella—a desire that defies old alliances and ignites a dangerous game of seduction. As forces of night and light clash in an epic battle, an ancient prophecy called "Miss Atomic Bomb" reveals that only the union of love and sacrifice can save their destiny. Amid secrets, betrayals, and forbidden love, the protagonists must confront their own demons to prevent total destruction from consuming Luminara.

When my husband pushed the divorce papers in front of me for the hundredth time, demanding I sacrifice myself for my sister, I didn't cry or make a scene. I simply signed my name, willingly giving up the man I'd loved for eight years to Ivy.

A few days later, Ivy got drunk and drove into a state senator's only son during a street race, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Once again, I stepped forward to take the blame and bear all the consequences.
When they later suggested I donate my kidney to Ivy, I readily agreed.

Mom and Dad said I'd finally grown into a mature and responsible sister.

Even my cold husband stood by my hospital bed and, for the first time in so long, gently stroked my cheek. He whispered, "Don't be afraid. The surgery will be a success. When you recover, we'll go traveling."

But he didn't know that whether the surgery succeeded or not, I wouldn't be going anywhere with him.

Because I was already terminally ill, with little time left.

Mandy's emotions ignite when she meets Jason, her brother-in-law. Amid a whirlwind of feelings, she finds herself trapped in an emotional dilemma, forced to choose between love and the burning desire that consumes her.

Aston Whitmore thought I loved him. Truth is, his mother bought a year of my life for a million dollars.
He thought those 3 AM study sessions were about redemption and romance across class lines. He didn't know I was never watching his pretty face—I was watching the countdown to my mother's kidney transplant payment.
I froze this trust fund prince's credit cards, cut his internet, and nailed him to that desk until his eyes went bloodshot cramming calculus.
When he turned into a guard dog in front of the whole cafeteria, publicly staking his claim on me, all I was calculating was the date that final payment would clear.
Today, he burst through the mansion door clutching his Yale acceptance letter, ready to give me some grand confession.
I was already thirty thousand feet up on a flight to Zurich, staring at that million-dollar deposit notification, face blank as I pulled out the SIM card, snapped it in half, and tossed it in the trash.
No note. No goodbye.
Just one notarized Service Completion Certificate sitting on that empty desk. Terms fulfilled. Transaction closed.

Being second best is practically in my DNA. My sister got the love, the attention, the spotlight. And now, even her damn fiancé.
Technically, Rhys Granger was my fiancé now—billionaire, devastatingly hot, and a walking Wall Street wet dream. My parents shoved me into the engagement after Catherine disappeared, and honestly? I didn’t mind. I’d crushed on Rhys for years. This was my chance, right? My turn to be the chosen one?
Wrong.
One night, he slapped me. Over a mug. A stupid, chipped, ugly mug my sister gave him years ago. That’s when it hit me—he didn’t love me. He didn’t even see me. I was just a warm-bodied placeholder for the woman he actually wanted. And apparently, I wasn’t even worth as much as a glorified coffee cup.
So I slapped him right back, dumped his ass, and prepared for disaster—my parents losing their minds, Rhys throwing a billionaire tantrum, his terrifying family plotting my untimely demise.
Obviously, I needed alcohol. A lot of alcohol.
Enter him.
Tall, dangerous, unfairly hot. The kind of man who makes you want to sin just by existing. I’d met him only once before, and that night, he just happened to be at the same bar as my drunk, self-pitying self. So I did the only logical thing: I dragged him into a hotel room and ripped off his clothes.
It was reckless. It was stupid. It was completely ill-advised.
But it was also: Best. Sex. Of. My. Life.
And, as it turned out, the best decision I’d ever made.
Because my one-night stand isn’t just some random guy. He’s richer than Rhys, more powerful than my entire family, and definitely more dangerous than I should be playing with.
And now, he’s not letting me go.

Louis and Olivia were lovers for years. He proposed marriage to her, and she accepted and gave her virginity to him. When he discovered that she was pregnant, he became distraught and ended the relationship.
Afterward, Louis regretted and Olivia met someone better - Denise, Louis's brother.. Denise and Olivia fell in love and got married after a month. She conceived immediately and when she delivered a set of twins. Then, Louis came up to claim the children.
Arthur, Louis' father and Denise's uncle, a widower of thirteen years fell in love with Nichole, Denise's mother, and a widow. Their marriage strengthened the bond between the two families, but it brought a lot of hatred from the members of Bailey's family, who had eyes on Nichole and wished to marry her. This led to a secret plan to eliminate him and have Nichole by his cousin, Mr. Stephen Bailey.
Louis refused to love again. He opted for surgery for memory erasure, which failed. Cassandra, who loved him unconditionally, accepted to marry him but conceived through IVF because he would not sleep with her. She named the child Olivia to make him happy, but he was not. When she got tired of the unbalanced relationship, she opted for a divorce. Would Louis' life be empty because of one wrong step?

Isabella’s world shatters when her longtime boyfriend, Damon Sanchez, publicly proposes to her best friend. Humiliated and heartbroken, she drowns her sorrows in a bar—only to wake up on the bed of Matteo Moretti, the city’s most powerful billionaire.
Their one-night stand should have been the end of it.
But when her brother Alan's illness and Damon's vengeance leave her jobless, fate delivers Isabella straight into the jaws of her most dangerous mistake—Matteo Moretti, now her ruthless new boss.
Caught between Damon’s vindictive games and Moretti’s dangerous allure, Isabella must decide—is survival worth the cost of her heart?
Especially when Matteo’s seven-year-old son, Noah, starts calling her "Mom."

Five years in captivity. They said Nora would be free after five years of working for the mafia king but they lied. Now Nora is forced to work permanently for the dangerous mafia king, executing dangerous cons with Noah, her only ally and her most dangerous temptation. The one man who makes her feel human again. But in a world built on lies, trust can be deadlier than betrayal.

Living in a house with hockey players was supposed to be a temporary fix. Falling for my brother’s best friend? That’s a permanent disaster.
My brother’s golden rule: Stay away from the team. Especially Jaxson Miller, the hotheaded rookie with a slap-shot that breaks glass and a reputation for breaking hearts.
But when my dorm floods and my brother offers me his spare room in the "Hockey House," I’m suddenly living feet away from the one guy I’m not allowed to touch. Jaxson is everything I should avoid—reckless, loud, and constantly in the penalty box. He’s the team’s biggest liability, and I’m his biggest secret. If we get caught, the team falls apart. If we don’t, my heart might be the one taking the hit.

After years of marriage, my husband and son never once treated me like I mattered.
In their eyes, there was only another woman.
When I heard them talking about abandoning me again, I finally hit my limit.
So I asked for a divorce.
From that day on, I lived for myself—and myself alone.

1

Luna Chen wanted a quiet life. Instead, she got a 1940s architect in a tailored suit who appeared in her bedroom at 3 a.m. and calmly announced:

“You’re my wife now.”

Rhen Blackwood has been trapped in her grandmother’s apartment for eighty years, bound by a supernatural contract.

The final condition? Fall in love for real… or the Spirit Broker drags his soul into eternal nothingness.

Luna doesn’t believe in ghosts. She definitely doesn’t believe in love. But Ren is infuriatingly perceptive, dryly funny, and the only person who sees straight through her walls.

As the deadline closes in, the lines between annoyance and aching want begin to blur. Lights flicker. Secrets surface.

And every time Ren’s form starts to fade, Luna realizes she might lose the one man who finally makes her feel alive.

She was supposed to fix his unfinished business.
She never expected him to become hers.

A slow-burn paranormal romance full of dark humor, haunted hearts, and one very stubborn ghost who refuses to stay dead.

He was reborn back to the day his wife Lydia was sacrificed to the demon.

The entire demon race was laughing at me, her useless husband who was about to be thrown into the cursed land, while she, dressed in a pure white robe, rose step by step on my bones and blood, becoming the most beloved saintess of the demons.

She thought I would rot in the ashes, but little did she know that I had swallowed a World Tree seed that had been dormant for ten thousand years in my death.

An enslaved old miner, a blind but gentle apothecary, a desperate mermaid leader... I led eighteen "defective products" chewed up by the abyss, riding the wildly growing tide of life, and forcefully smashed through the demon's royal city!

When the immortal demon king was drained dry by the World Tree and knelt on the ground begging for mercy like a wild dog, my noble wife smiled and raised the sharp obsidian.

"What are demons? This throne belongs only to me."

This is a story of extreme betrayal and violent redemption. When life permeates the demon realm, all the high and mighty evils will turn into dust at the bottom of the trees!

Woke up with the power to command endless zombies. I guarded the fortress for my sister, only to find her tortured, drained of blood, and used as live bait. A fake hologram fooled me for two years. Now I unleash my million undead army to burn all traitors to ashes.

I found my husband's vasectomy certificate while sorting medical bills. The procedure was done a year ago. But I was six months pregnant now.

I stared at the date on the paper and my hand just... stopped. I kept checking it again and again, but it was still the same. I was freaking out. I looked down at my bump showing through this baggy sweater, and my hands started shaking.

I got in my car and drove straight to my husband's private club. I needed answers about this, now.

At the board meeting, he voted to dilute my equity.

"This is business, Elena. Not personal."

Three years of hidden marriage. I thought we were partners. But in that moment, I finally understood—I was just his technical supplier on the road to success.

What Ryan didn't know: that Technology Contribution Agreement he signed three years ago contained one clause. 70% of NexTech's core algorithm IP belongs to me. Personally.

Product launch day. Two hundred investors watching. I took the microphone.

He thought I'd present the tech specs like always.

He was wrong.

"You good-for-nothing should get out and save your food rations. I'll use your truckload of supplies for you!"

The man-eating scarlet spores swept through the town. My good brother locked the security door tightly and locked me in the corridor filled with blood mist.

He stared intently at me through the peephole, waiting to see the horrific sight of my internal organs being drained by the fungus.

But a second before I was devoured by the spores, I hid in my personal space and with a single thought drained the last drop of water and every grain of rice from the room.

Three days later, in this impregnable "vacuum tomb".

When he was so thirsty that he swallowed blood, and knelt on the ground desperately pounding on the door.

I kicked the door open, tied him up with nylon rope, and hung him upside down in the blood-red storm outside the window.

For five years, my crime boss husband made me take off my wedding ring nine times—all for his precious damsel in distress.

When we first married, he promised me: "From now on, you're my queen, the queen of New Orleans."

But whenever Brianna came crying for help, he'd change his tune: "Mr. Parker saved my life, Claire. I owe his family everything."

And like a fool, I believed him eight times.

Eight times I watched from the shadows as he took another woman to our favorite restaurants.

Eight times I explained to the crew that our "separation" was just giving each other space.

Eight times I watched her move into my bedroom, use my dishes, sleep in my bed.

All for a man who kept making me slip off my ring, then slide it back on, over and over again.

Until the ninth time, when he said he needed to provide sperm for her fertility treatment, and I offered to leave.

He still thinks this is just another temporary break, expecting me to come crawling back in a month like always.

He'll never know I've already booked my ticket out of here.

The day I died in a foreign country, my boyfriend was in the spotlight with another woman.

He's the man I built from nothing. Five years ago, I saved a broke orphan fresh out of college from the gutter. He said he wanted to be famous, wanted to make it to the top of the hockey world. In exchange, he became my boyfriend for five years.

I gave him the best coaching staff money could buy. Bought an entire hockey franchise and made him the centerpiece. Called in every favor I had to make him MVP.

But while he enjoyed everything I gave him, he refused to make our relationship public. Said it would "hurt his brand." He could make headlines with reporters and models, but nobody could know I existed.

He even said on national TV: "Those owners who just throw money around are pretty boring. Hockey is about skill, not money."

So why did he lose his mind when he found out I was dead?

I overheard my husband tell his business partner, “I let Aria get pregnant for fun, not like I ever planned on letting them live, the babies make perfect specimens for Vivian’s research.”
The same day I discovered I was pregnant for the fifth time.
I used to believe he was my protector.
This time, I gathered proof of everything he’d done and made sure the truth destroyed him before I started my new life.

My daughter begged me, tears in her eyes, to take her to gymnastics camp—just the two of us.

I thought it was her way of proving she loved me.

I was wrong.

In that hotel room in Toronto, I overheard my husband's voice—with another woman.

“Don't worry, Sophia will find a way to stay a few more days. I promised her that blue limited-edition leotard.”

“Her body now… after giving birth, it's ruined.”

In that moment, my world collapsed.

I thought I'd only been betrayed by my husband.
But the daughter I raised with everything I had—she was his accomplice.

The child I nurtured with my own hands kept clearing the path: so that woman could sleep in my bed, wear the lingerie I could no longer fit into, sneer in front of the mirror at every single mark my body earned from bringing life into this world.

I once believed that giving up my career would be enough to hold my family together.

But they joined hands to tell me: my sacrifice was never honored. It was a joke.

When a woman who has given everything to her family finally wakes up—

Her revenge will make every single one of them remember exactly what they did.

My name is Nora Monroe. Thirty-two weeks pregnant, ready to pop anytime.
This morning, my husband Everett left town, leaving me and my cat, Piper, alone at home.
Deep into the night, a strange woman called. Her voice was gentle, apologetic—she said my cat Piper had somehow wandered downstairs. She was severely allergic to cat dander and couldn't bring her up to me. I grabbed my coat, ready to head down, when the baby suddenly gave me a vicious kick. The pain sent me collapsing back onto the sofa, unable to move.
The woman on the phone urged me over and over. I looked up, my eyes falling on the corner of the living room.
Piper was sitting right there, staring unblinkingly at me...

I once loved Ryan deeply and helped him become the Alpha, only to be rewarded with chains in a dungeon and the mocking laughter of him and his mistress.

Fate gave me a second chance—I woke up reborn on the morning of the mate selection ceremony. There he was, still ordering me around in front of everyone, expecting me to play the obedient servant.

Everyone tried to convince me that Ryan, the man who killed me, is the "right choice."

Yet I chose Connor—the man feared by the entire clan, the one who will bring ruin to the clan for the sake of his one true love.

This time, I refuse to be the stepping stone on Ryan's climb to power.

I'm going to make everyone see who truly holds the reins.

To help his life-saving benefactor, he personally pressed a pregnant me on the operating table to draw bone marrow.
I cried and begged him, "James, I'm pregnant. It's your child. Don't do this to me..."
But he had a look of disgust in his eyes. "Elizabeth, you'd lie about something like that just to get out of helping Mandy?"
Until there was a river of blood in the operating room and that unformed child turned into a pool of bloody water, he finally panicked.
Later, when he knew that the person who saved him in the fire ten years ago was actually me, he held my ashes and knelt outside the operating room for a full three days.

For the third time, Kael fled before the wedding—this time to deliver medicine to the neighbor girl he grew up with.
As compensation, the pack elders offered me two chests of rare ore and the deed to an island.
Someone, still hopeful, called Kael on speakerphone.
His careless voice echoed through the hall:
“Why bother with compensation? Ella loves me so much; she’ll come around as soon as I go back and sweet-talk her a little.”
“Sophia’s health is what matters now. Once she recovers, I’ll just hold another ceremony for Ella.”
The elders tried to explain, but the surrounding werewolves were all waiting to see the show—waiting to see how much humiliation I would swallow.
Just like the first two times.
But I’d had enough. And I’d lost all interest in Kael.
I kicked over the chest of ore and let my gaze fall on Kael’s uncle.
Then, I smiled.
“I heard the old Alpha left a will: whoever can claim me… becomes the next Alpha.”